A prominent medical journal has published an article arguing that parents should not have “veto power” in decisions around their children wanting to embark on medical treatment to change gender. Writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics last month, bioethics professor Maura Priest (who is a philosopher and not a medical doctor) said that in […]
Quietly, this is one of the most scandalous episodes in Irish journalism for long and many’s the year. And rather than being appropriately embarrassed, the editor was out over the weekend, bragging about it. “An absolute box office piece”, says he, without shame: Sunday Independent P1– Gardai probe sinister calls to Nphet chiefs– Sinéad O'Connor […]
A few caveats here: First, Behaviour and Attitudes has consistently found Sinn Fein support higher, and other party support lower, than other pollsters. That does not mean they are wrong, but it is worth noting. Second, they were not hugely accurate at the last general election, though that also does not mean they are wrong […]
Not a name that would well-known, or known at all, in Ireland, Lord Sumption, with his title of Lord, is likely to be given short shrift as a credible commentator on the world, on Brexit, on Covid-19, or even the rule of law. Titles of peerage tend to induce a guttural reaction in Ireland […]
Despite all the recent troubles with Russia or Belarus, the EU diplomats know well that, as The Economist put it not so long ago, the Taiwan Strait is geopolitically the most challenging part of the world. Any conflict in this area could draw major nuclear power into a war, over an island, which is not […]
The below picture is copied and pasted from Pat Leahy’s report of the Dublin Bay South by-election, in the Irish Times of 28th June 2021 – that is, in the middle of the election campaign. The picture is interesting in a number of ways, not least in comparison with the actual result. Ivana Bacik received […]
Jerry “Golfgate” Buttimer is the latest government politician to be caught rapid after feigning outrage at lockdown comparisons to apartheid and segregation, while previously making those comparisons himself. They just never learn, do they? The controversy began after Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh expressed her view that the domestic vaccine passport law was discriminatory, divisive, […]
The headline to this piece is not, in fact, what the HSE said. In truth, because the HSE must (you’d nearly think there was a law mandating it) present all data in with the most depressing possible spin, they pointed out that 5% of new cases are people who have been vaccinated: #NEW HSE says […]
Poor old Ireland: Varadkar says he believes “we need to get through at least another winter before we can say the pandemic is behind us” – he says vaccinating all adults might not be enough to bring about herd immunity, and teenagers being vaccinated may also be required before any full reopening pic.twitter.com/6hkymiVyIx — Gavan […]
Some this week were attempting to perhaps distract attention from what is currently taking place in South Africa with reminders that in July 1984 Dunnes Stores workers in Henry Street, Dublin began a three year long strike in opposition to the stocking of food produce from South Africa. It was indeed a brave stance to […]
In a significant victory for the local community of the south Dublin quays, the High Court this morning upheld an appeal against a heroin injection facility at Merchants Quay. The proposal included a needle exchange and the provision of what locals describe as a “shooting gallery” for heroin users in a basement at the facility […]
To be fair, they won’t have much choice in the matter. If Ireland keeps spending money like a drunken sailor, then sooner or later, Brussels will step in and tell them that they have to stop, for the sake of the wider eurozone. That might suit Irish politicians just fine, though, since they’ll be able […]